Lemon Bars – Recipe by Laura Vitale – Laura in the Kitchen Episode 136

To get this complete recipe with instructions and measurements, check out my website: http://www.LauraintheKitchen.com

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You hi guys I’m Laura Vitale on this episode of Laura in the kitchen I’m going to show you how to make lemon bars they’re incredibly easy to make very quick feel very basic ingredients which you probably already have on hand and no doubt they’re gonna be delicious

Now to make this recipe you’re going to need all-purpose flour confectioner sugar unsalted butter at room temperature fresh lemons eggs sweetened condensed milk a tiny bit more flour baking powder salt and this is completely optional it’s yellow food coloring again that’s completely optional we’ll go into that a little bit

Later but to get started the first thing you want to do is bring it up to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and get that waiting for you second thing you want to do is you want to take a 9 by 13 baking pan and I’m lining mine with aluminum foil

But you could also line with parchment paper that would be fine I don’t need to grease it or anything that’s perfect as is I just always like to line my baking pans and stuff because I just want to ensure that they come out easy and we’re doing that

It never fails now just to make the crust in a large bowl we’re going to put in our all-purpose flour confectioner sugar or powdered sugar whichever one you prefer and goes by both names depends on where you live what country you live and you’re going to need two

Sticks which equals one cup of unsalted butter and it has to be really soft because we need to be able to blend this relatively easily just like that and I’m just making this in a bowl with a wooden spoon and I might switch to a whisk a

Little bit later now just using a wooden spoon I’m just going to mix this all together until I have a pretty nice thick sort of dough sticky dough then we’re going to press into our baking pan this is exactly what we’re looking for it’s nice and sticky but not too sticky

And we’re going to put this into our foil lined baking pan so I strike fast now using my spatula part some part the spatula partly my hand and partly the bottom of this ramekin we’re going to press this out on the bottom and halfway up the

Sides of the pan if you feel like it’s getting too sticky just take a little bit more flour and dust it on your hand so your hands don’t stick that’s pretty much good you see I’m just using the ramekin to kind of help me guide it into

Pushing it and flatten it you can also you just use the bottom of a regular drinking cup but this looks just about perfect now I’m going to pop this in the oven for 20 minutes at 350 then I’m going to clean up and we’ll start making the filling

Now I bake my bottom layer for 20 minutes at 350 now I’m letting this cool for just a few minutes while I make the filling now in this bowl I’m just going to put the eggs with the sweetened condensed milk I’m going to mix those two together

Now that we have that I’m going to add in my flour and I know it’s not a lot of flour it’s only a tablespoon but that and the eggs are really what’s going to be the binder to the filling and also the baking powder and the salt and the

Lemon juice I have a 2/3 of a cup of lemon fresh squeezed lemon juice that just squeezed and I also graded the zest of one lemon I’m gonna put that right in whoops a couple pips in there but oh well that would be like the lucky lucky

Winner whoops just mix those two that together until you have a nice creamy filling that’s just about perfect nice and thick I was able to fish out the seeds no one needs to know me a little whoopsy noodle now this is already perfect as is and it’s a beautiful pale

Yellow color but I really want to enhance that yellow color so people know it’s a lemon bar so I’m just going to put in a few drops of yellow food coloring that is yellow it’s not pink just attached it doesn’t affect the flavor and you don’t have to put it in

There I just like to because like I said I like to people to know that it’s lemon nice bright yellow color alright that’s it now I’m just going to put this in my crust and let this bake just pour it in here now I’m just going to have to level this all out

I usually just tilt the pan if I have to but this is perfect now I’m just going to put this back in the oven 350 no adjustments for about 25 minutes and then I know there’s a little bit of a Tuffy but they have to cool about two to

Three hours because if it’s not cool it won’t set completely and when you go to sliced up you have a just crumbly mess so in they go after baking out of lemon bars for 25 minutes and let cool completely for about 3 hours and now

It’s time to eat oh okay now watch how easy it is when you have parchment paper or aluminum foil ready just kind of put this aside look at that the edges will do that a little bit but that’s alright that’s good now my tip to getting beautiful beautiful bars without

Crumbled all over the place take a large cup of hot water take your knife and stir it in there okay and just you can make them as big or as little as you prefer every time you cut you dip your knife the water is gross I won’t recommend drinking it after that

But what does that matter and just do it over and over again that’s cut we’re just going to arrange them you can cut them as big or small as you like but look at that you have that perfect crust on the bottom which is basically a shortbread crust that’s perfect I’m just

Going to arrange them on this platter look how easy they come out because we just lined that with a little bit of aluminium foil it really makes our job a lot easier look at me always thinking always got my little tips and tricks to make things

Easier so just line them all up yeah now we have them lined up their like little pretty soldiers huh we’re going to sprinkle them with some confectioner sugar these are gonna be so good I make these a lot because as you guys know me if you

Watch any of my other episodes sweet or say where you probably know I’m a huge lemon lover I put lemon and everything so lemon and dessert it’s a natural thing go hand-in-hand mmm so but I’ll custard it’s like insanely delicious lemony but somehow not too lemony I really can’t describe

It it’s just perfect and delicious and if you want a little bite of heaven you go on your kitchen make this recipe and to get the ingredients and the full recipe for it you can find it on my website at WWE you Today’s Twitter question comes from Norman girl 20 Laura what is your favorite dessert now a lot of you I know are expecting me to say something chocolate because you all know how much I’m just like a crazy chocolate lover I love Nutella and I eat it is straight

Out of the tub but if I had to pick one dessert it’s my all-time favorite it would have to be a traditional Italian pasta which is a grain pie made from cooked whole wheat and ricotta at a really unusual extract that’s made from like the scent of a thousand flowers

It’s like a really rosy smelly I know it sounds strange and I can’t describe it and then probably you guys are going I don’t know what she’s talking about but that is my favorite all-time dessert ever I don’t know why it just is now if you have a question you like to see

Answered on my show tweet me and Lawrence kitchen don’t forget the hashtag Laura Batali